UPDATED with latest Nielsen numbers: Jenny managed to recruit quite a few more viewers to the block: Monday night’s telecast of the American Music Awards on CBS posted its largest audience since 2019 and was the top broadcast of the night.
The live, fan-voted awards show that was hosted by Jennifer Lopez averaged 4.86 million viewers, up 38% from its last live broadcast in 2022 when it aired on ABC, according to Nielsen results.
CBS reports the audience for the American Music Awards was 26 percent higher than for ABC’s CMA Country Christmas on Dec. 3, 2024 with 3.87M; 39 percent higher than NBC’s SNL 50 Years of Music on Jan. 27, 2025 (3.49M) and 52 percent higher than ABC’s CMA Fest on June 25, 2024 (3.19M).
The awards show also saw gains in all key demos versus the 2022 broadcast: it was up 91 percent among A18-34, up 23 percent among A18-49 and up 16 percent among A25-54, according to Nielsen.
Billie Eilish led the winners for the American Music Awards, which returned with Lopez in Las Vegas’ Fontainebleau luxury resort following a two-year hiatus. The nine-time Grammy and two-time Oscar winner was triumphant in all seven of her nominated categories.
Despite leading nominations with a total of 10 nods and having a banner year, Kendrick Lamar won only a single category, Favorite Hip-Hop Song, with smash hit “Not Like Us.”
New categories this year included Album of the Year and Song of the Year, both won by Eilish, as well as Social Song of the Year, which Doechii’s “Anxiety” claimed. You can find all the winners here.